Following the call for expressions of interest launched by Ravinala Airports in December 2023, ITATRA was selected to be a beneficiary of the fundraising initiatives implemented by Ravinala Airports at the international airport of Antananarivo. The collaboration between both parties was established in the beginning of February to raise funds to support ITATRA for its activities for the year of 2024.
1. What is this fundraising about ?
This fundraising is part of the social responsibility and sponsorship initiatives of Ravinala Airports. It aims to optimize the positive impacts of the airports through its societal activities such as an equitable quality education. In this context, a fundraising urn has been placed in the public area at the Ivato International airport where travellers, local or international, are encouraged to donate to support the cause. With the funds raised in this campaign, we will organize activities that we hope to increase the interest of the attendees and participants in STEM fields, especially in optics and photonics and raise awareness of the importance of light and its technology in our daily life. This fundraising campaign will last until the end of March 2024.
2. How are we going to use the raised funds and who will be the beneficiaries ?
We hope to raise funds to enable us organise activities for the celebration of the international day of light (IDL) in May 2024. A photo contest with Foldscope Instruments is planned to be part of this celebration where the students from the high schools we visited during our science outreaches from 2022 until March 2024 are encouraged to participate. Those consists of the public high schools of Mahitsy, Fenoarivo-Be, Ambohitseheno, Ivato Airport, and Andoharanofotsy. There will be different stages to the competition to select the final three winners. Alongside the photo contest, we will also organise a one day science fair to celebrate the IDL among more diverse public. The event venue is not confirmed yet but we are working towards a plan to have it taking place at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) Ampefiloha on May 18th, 2024. It will be open to the public. High school students and undergraduate students in physical and life sciences education from the ENS are highly encouraged to attend. We plan to invite local NGOs working in the STEM fields as well to participate in this IDL celebration.
3. How much funds do we need ?
Any donations we will receive no matter the amount are meaningful to us to achieve our goals. Everyone’s support is valued and appreciated. Here is the first draft of the funds we will need to conduct the event for the celebration of the IDL. We have also applied to the education grant of SPIE to support us in these activities. The draft of the budget will be updated according to the total funds we will manage to raise at the end of the campaign and whether or not we will secure the education grant from SPIE for this year. In the estimated budget below, we assume 1USD ~ 4500 MGA.
We plan to recruit at least 15 volunteers to successfully conduct these activities. Here the budget we have is in consideration of 15 volunteers only. It does not account for the fares of the volunteers to the D-day of the IDL event. We also plan to have three presentations about the importance of light in our daily life, its technology and the case of teaching STEM fields in Madagascar during this celebration of the IDL. The prizes to the photo contest is planned to remain the same as our plan from last year’s contest [report here]. This consists of cash prizes which we believe will highly assist the students financially in their studies. This is subject to change depending on the funds raised. We are investing more in the advertising materials and the winners prizes in our budget to encourage as many students as possible to take part in these activities. We believe this will optimise the impact of the project.
Any raised funds that will remain after the celebration of the IDL will be used to conduct the VISION science outreach, edition 2024.
Expenses | Amount in MGA | Amount in USD | |
Photo contest for the four high schools | Fare of our volunteers for retraining teachers and workshop for students on how to use a foldscope | 120 000 | 26.7 |
Prizes for the three winners | 370 000 | 82.22 | |
Internet for the volunteer organising and conducting the evaluation of the photos | 20 000 | 4.44 | |
Advertising materials and certificates | 100 000 | 22.22 | |
Science fair for the celebration of the international day of light (IDL) | Transportation of our science outreach equipment to the event venue (return) | 50 000 | 11.11 |
T-shirts for the volunteers | 300 000 | 66.7 | |
Lunches and refreshments for the volunteers | 337 500 | 75 | |
Fare and indemnity of 3 speakers to the science fair | 90 000 | 20 | |
Advertising materials (posters, flyers) | 300 000 | 66.7 | |
TOTAL: | 1 687 500 | 375 |
4. How to contribute to this fundraising ?
There are two main ways to contribute to this fundraising.
Firstly, by placing the donations to the fundraising urn placed at the Ravinala Airports. The poster attached to the urn is displayed in the next figure.
Secondly, by transferring the donations to the ITATRA bank account whose details are given below :
Bank: BNI Madagascar
Account holder name: ASSOCIATION ONG ITATRA
IBAN: MG4600005 001137349980000118
BIC: CLMDMGMG
Bank code: 00005
Branch code (code guichet): 00113
Account number: 734 99800001
RIB key: 18
If you would like to contribute to this fundraising but are unable to do any of the two procedures previously mentioned, please contact us via email, telephone or social media page and we shall look for a different alternative.
Email : itatra.ngo@gmail.com
Telephone : +261 34 43 366 60 / +44 7443 153560
Facebook page : ITATRA NGO ; X : @itatra_ngo
5. Is there any other way to assist the NGO other than this fundraising ?
Yes. We will be launching a call for volunteers to assist us in this celebration of the IDL soon. We will need facilitators for the event and external examiners of the photos submitted to us. An experience in the field of microscopy will be required for the external examiners whereas no prior experience in the field of microscopy is required for the facilitators but strong interest in STEM fields and at least a scientific high school diploma. Please drop us a message via email, website or social media and we shall get in touch in due time.
We also accept any donations of materials and equipment for education purposes. Please contact us or refer to the details given here for the collection.
6. How can you make sure the funds or donations you make to the NGO are really doing what they are intending to do ?
We will release a full report of the event at the end of the event. All reports of ITATRA activities are made publics and can be accessed from the news page of our website. Preferably, any financial donations should be done directly via the bank account of the NGO only or the urn placed at the airports. The Ravinala Airport is following closely the progress of the activities under this collaboration. If a donation is made via a different route to the NGO other than those two, the NGO will send a receipt to the donors and a copy of the full report of the activities when it is available. The donors may request a detailed explanation of the expenses and the report.
We do appreciate your time and support in different ways. From all the team, thank you !